Although the video link below has nothing to do with the adventure - it is rather cool:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn5Y4O9-hwU
PR below:
New Year's Day launch for no back-up tuk-tuk adventure across India!
Rickshaw Run: New Year’s Day launch for no back-up tuk-tuk adventure across IndiaDriving the length of India in three-wheeled auto-rickshaws designed for short city jaunts
On January 1st 60 brave teams from 13 different countries will celebrate the New Year by driving a tiny three-wheeled tuk-tuk from a beach in Pondicherry, south India, to the misty hillstation of Shillong in the distant north west over 2000 miles away.
Organised by The Adventurists, the Rickshaw Run is an extreme fortnight of mud, sweat, mountains, jungles and possibly the worst roads in the world. It is a simple, intentionally ridiculous and hugely popular adventure designed to raise money for charities in India and guarantee the very tallest of tales to bore your grandchildren with.
There is no set route, no professional drivers, little preparation and absolutely no back up. It’s not a race, it’s about getting lost and stuck then getting yourself out of it. The finish line doesn’t have a clock to mark the teams’ arrival times, it has cucumber sandwiches, much back-slapping and a huge party.
Tom Morgan, who was told the Run was impossible but created it anyway, is also running the New Year adventure, and said:
"This is the 5th Rickshaw Run and the start and finish lines change each time to make it slightly harder. This time round it’s a south to north long distance corker, but what happens along the way is entirely down to the teams and their ability to wangle themselves out of all the potential pickles they’ll find themselves in.
"The great thing about the Run is that it’s a proper adventure that forces people to get out into the world, with nobody wiping their backside with the double-velvet tyranny of a boring itinerary!"
The teams are an eclectic bunch including a 21 year old Californian student; a writer from New Zealand living in Papa New Guinea; a 54 year old former Mounted Policeman from Canada; a Singaporean TV Producer and a Maths Teacher from Denmark.
Paul Harold, 38 year old Finance Manager from Newcastle, UK described his adventuring profile as:
"Six foot ten (so should have no trouble at all fitting into a rickshaw, right?) … No practical skills at all, unless you count gardening which is sure to be really useful."
Graham Mattock, also from the UK said:
"I’ve always wanted to travel across India, so this is a great way to do it. It’s going to be way better than a boring beach holiday. Plus we’ll be raising money for charities that work in India so it really ticks all the boxes for us."
Each team has to raise £1000 which is donated directly to the Official Charities, FRANK Water Projects and Mercy Corps. An important part of The Adventurists’ masterplan is that each event brings massive benefits to the countries who make it all possible.
Katie Alcott, founder of FRANK Water Projects said:
"The teams will be raising an amazing £30,000 for FRANK which will provide clean, safe, 5-filtered drinking water for over 25,000 people living in rural India. The enthusiasm of the participants for fundraising has been overwhelming, with many teams hoping to raise much more than expected. Teams will also be offered the opportunity to visit projects that were funded by previous Rickshaw Runs, highlighting the transformation that a clean water facility offers such communities."
You can follow the adventure with live updates from the teams including a position tracking system, SMS messages from the road, photos, videos and blogs. The mighty three-wheeled adventure wobbles into action on New Year’s Day:rickshawrun.theadventurists.com
About The Adventurists and Rickshaw RunFlush your guide books down the loo people. Join The Adventurists in our battle with an increasingly boring, sanitised world.
We hold what we like to think are proper adventures, the sort where you have to use your own cunning; no guides, no rules and only a small chance of making it to the other end with all your limbs. It's not just about adventure, The Adventurists are hell bent on saving the world as well as making it less boring, so all our adventures raise heaps of cash for charity. The gaggle of adventures now stands at a mighty 5, but the Rickshaw Run is one of the most popular. The demand for two weeks of cross-continent three-wheeled mayhem in a vehicle designed for short urban trips is so high there will be three Rickshaw Runs a year from 2009!
For more information visit:http://www.rickshawrun.theadventurists.comtheadventurists.com
About FRANK Water Projects – Official CharityFRANK Water is a pioneering charity that funds sustainable, community run, 5-filter, ultra violet clean water projects. We're direct, honest, transparent and candid - that's why we're called FRANK. We also raise public awareness of global water and related health issues. We work very closely with local NGOs to install our projects and insist on direct line of sight to every project pre and post installation. By October 2008 FRANK Water will have funded 10 projects in India, with many more in development - benefitting over 100,000 people. For more information on the projects please visit the FRANK Water Projects page:frankwaterprojects.org
About Mercy Corps – Official CharityMercy Corps have been an official charity from the inaugural Rickshaw Run back in 2006 through to 2008. Mercy Corps' assistance to India dates back to January 2001 when the agency responded to a devastating earthquake in Gujarat . Today, Mercy Corps is working in India to build community collaboration and fulfil dire health and economic needs.
The Himalayan foothills around Darjeeling, India are home to some of the world's finest teas - and some of Asia's poorest families. For more information visit the Rickshaw Run section of the Mercy Corps website:
mercycorps.org.uk/rickshawrun
About Tom Morgan, founder of The Adventurists and Rickshaw RunWhile getting stuck, broke and in trouble all over the world he realised it was filling the void in his adventure starved life. Mr Tom felt the inexorable need to share his “insight” with the world and so way back in 2001 he did. Three years later people started listening. He can usually be found pacing backwards and forwards coming up with stupid ideas.
The League of Adventurists was formed to mould Tom’s hobby into an adventure revolution and is now known as The Adventurists. It has offices in England, India and Mongolia and in 2007 won the Shell Livewire Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the UK.
In 2009, a massive 950 teams from more than 20 different countries will take part in slightly ridiculous adventures across four continents. The teams all have to raise money for charity to take part too, and by the end of next year the total donated directly to awesome causes will be almost £2 million!
Nat Geo Adventure Magazine recently wrote an article about Tom Morgan, saying: "…what began as an inside joke is now an adventure travel phenomenon."
